Jefferies’ top analyst, Brent Thill, called Microsoft (MSFT) stock “our top AI pick” after returning impressed from the tech giant’s annual developer conference, MSFT Build 2025, held in Seattle last week. Thill maintained his “Buy” rating on MSFT stock, along with a price target of $550, which implies 22.2% upside potential from current levels. He stated that Microsoft is focused on becoming more of an artificial intelligence (AI) platform, positioning it strongly to capitalize on the rapidly-evolving AI sector.
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Thill is a five-star analyst on TipRanks, ranking #118 out of the 9,562 analysts covered. He boasts an impressive success rate of 67% and an average return per rating of 13.20%.
Thill’s 5 Key Takeaways from Microsoft Build
The Microsoft Build conference brings together thousands of developers and technology enthusiasts, offering them hands-on experience and the opportunity to connect with Microsoft’s engineers. Each year, the event showcases the company’s latest technologies, tools, and platforms, with a focus on Microsoft’s ecosystem, including Windows, Azure Cloud Services, NET, Microsoft 365, AI, and more.
Let’s take a brief look at Thill’s 5 key takeaways from this year’s conference.
- Microsoft is expected to roll out its updated Copilot platform, which leverages the power of AI reasoning through Researcher and Analyst agents.
- Thill noted that although Copilot’s adoption is still in its early stages, the company remains committed to rolling out the updates.
- The analyst cited two major barriers for Copilot’s success: data access and governance, which could hamper the model’s accuracy as well as its ability to operate transparently, ethically, and securely.
- He believes the overall macroeconomic environment remains cautiously optimistic, but Microsoft is mostly viewed as a safe haven.
- Thill anticipates that Microsoft is leaning toward becoming an open platform and hub for AI.
To conclude, Thill noted that developers were generally excited about Copilot’s improvement over the past three to six months and its ability to quickly integrate future reasoning models. He also mentioned that the updated Copilot, with enhanced research capabilities, will help narrow the gap between OpenAI’s Deep Research. Additionally, the rollout of Copilot Search and Copilot Memory in June should further close this gap.
Is Microsoft Stock a Good Buy?
Wall Street remains highly optimistic about Microsoft’s long-term stock trajectory. On TipRanks, MSFT stock has a Strong Buy consensus rating based on 30 Buys and five Hold ratings. Also, the average Microsoft price target of $512.34 implies 13.8% upside potential from current levels. Year-to-date, MSFT stock has gained 7.2%.
